Athletics: Although her Irish record of 12.85 seconds looked like the perfect send-off for the European Championships, Derval O'Rourke is aiming to go even quicker when she runs the 100-metre hurdles at the Nuremberg meeting in Germany tomorrow.
O'Rourke was a late addition to a race that includes most of the main challengers in Gothenburg in just over a week's time, and a sub-12.8 clocking is now her target in the final stages of her quest to add a European outdoor medal to the world indoor gold she won in Moscow in March.
The 12.85 the Corkwoman ran in Helsinki on Wednesday night was a significant improvement on the 12.92 she'd run earlier in the month, and it lifted her to sixth on the European ranking list for 2006.
Originally she intended running a relay leg at this afternoon's Dublin International meeting in Santry, but having consulted with her coach, Jim Kilty, she decided instead on one more test over the hurdles.
"This will still be only Derval's seventh race this summer," said Kilty, "which is still maybe a little less than we'd hoped for . . . but she'll definitely be the freshest athlete in Gothenburg.
"I'm also confident she can go quicker again than in Helsinki. Her reaction time (speed from the blocks) that night was actually a lot slower than usual and allows for improvement of around six-hundredths of a second."
Another Gothenburg hopeful, Alistair Cragg, suffered a worrying setback when fading to seventh over 1,500 metres at the London Grand Prix last night.
Cragg was looking to fine-tune his speed for the European 5,000 metres in a week's time but was badly caught for speed over the final 300 metres.
Spain's Sergio Gallardo won in 3:38.56, and James Nolan ended up the leading Irishman, coming through to take fourth in 3:40.43.
A clearly disappointed Cragg had to be content with 3:41.64, which will have done his confidence no good.
Britain's Mo Farah clocked 3:39.02 in third and, having run a best of 13:09.58 over 5,000 metres, is suddenly looking like the gold-medal favourite for Gothenburg.
Several of the other Irish athletes bound for Gothenburg compete in Santry this afternoon, including Paul Hession in the 200 metres. A leg injury forced Hession to miss last weekend's national championships but he's fit again and hoping to improve his season's best, 20.75 seconds.
The feature race is the Morton Mile, which includes nine sub-four-minute men. Irish hopes are carried mainly by Colin Costello and Gary Murray, and the international flavour is provided by Johan Cronje of South Africa and the Australian Youcef Abdi.
The meeting follows a brisk two-hour schedule that starts at 2.45pm, and admission to the Morton Stadium is free.
